What's new

'To Catch a Thief' - any reviews yet ? (1 Viewer)

Scott Shanks

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 10, 2001
Messages
380
Location
Louisville, Ky
Real Name
Scott Shanks
As an aside, I watched Dial H for Hitchcock last night and in a nearly two hour documentary about The Master, To Catch A Thief received one maybe two sentences. Only mentioned as a movie he made between Rear Window and NxNW. I found this to be a rather strange omission from an otherwise good documentary.
 

Robert Harris

Archivist
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 1999
Messages
18,311
Real Name
Robert Harris
Robert Harris has now seen Thief, and out of respect for Mr. Blythe, will not be getting into a discussion regarding restoration and quality as regards this title.

Mr. Harris also welcomes back Mr. Caps, and hopes that he's doing well.
 

Louis-Olivier

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 2, 2000
Messages
83
Robert, i believe your insight in this matter would benefit a lot of us! It's always great to read your comment on restauration, i know i have myself learned a lot just by reading you and then watching the discs to see the flaws!
 

Tim RH

Second Unit
Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
375
I believe Robert's post speaks for itself. Just read between the lines and I think you have your answer already. Or maybe it's just me :).
 

Robert Harris

Archivist
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 1999
Messages
18,311
Real Name
Robert Harris
Actually I wouldn't read between the lines on this one.

I'm not backing away because because of the transfer, but rather, as I attempted to express, there are a small number of people in the industry who are truly gentlemen.

Mr. Blythe happens to be one of them.

He is doing his job in promoting an important release.

He and I have been discussing the semantics of restoration, which is not a specific topic to be handled at this time on HTF.

Thief is an old film.

The original Eastmancolor elements are over 47 years old, when even protection elements were not of the highest quality.

I would suggest that my comments on this be taken at face value.

There is nothing written here between the lines.

RAH
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
Messages
1,689
I don't know that anybody can, or should, try to talk somebody into liking what they see on their monitor. Not only is this movie old, but everybody's system is different, and their views about what they see are going to be different. It's one of the reasons I try to list my equipment, so people have a better understanding of what I think I see.

Others here are more erudite in their criticisms, with intimate knowledge of the film, and what it was meant to look like, and what steps were taken in the "restoration" of it for DVD.

All I can comment on is what I see. I've learned that a really good DVD version of an old movie (particularly an old Technicolor movie) is so revelatory, that the experience is extremely pleasurable. As such, I buy more and more DVDs (kind of like crack cocaine) in order to achieve that watchers nirvana-like rush I felt when I first saw "The Harvey Girls" or "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" in this format. I also got a huge rush from restored films like "Vertigo" and "Lawrence of Arabia" on the big, 70mm screen. I seek that rush. It's why I buy DVDs of old movies I"m very familiar with.

"To Catch A Thief" is perfectly watchable, but for me, it didn't provide that rush, because it is clearly an old film, with the inherent problems.

I hope it isn't wrong to express my opinion -- I've tried to counter it as best as I can with respectful tones for those more erudite than I. My opinion carries no weight, but it is mine to say out loud.
 

Randy_M

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 25, 2000
Messages
803
Location
Peoria, AZ
Real Name
Randy
re: Hitchcock's opinion of To Catch a Thief from "Hitchcock" by Truffaut:
Truffaut: To Catch a Thief was the first film you shot on location in France. What do you think of the picture on the whole?
Hitchcock: It was a lightweight story.
I'll enjoy my copy that shipped this morning.
By the way, this book is absolutely essential for any Hitchcock fan. It covers, in interview format, all of the Master's 50 films.
Still available at bookstores in softcover.
 

Robert Harris

Archivist
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 1999
Messages
18,311
Real Name
Robert Harris
To DeeF:

I have examined Thief on three different systems, two computer based, one not.

An Apple with a 23" HiDef lcd screen, a pc with a 17" crt and a Runco projected to 110".

It looks quite different on all three systems.

Therefore, you are quite correct that this is one of the situations in which the hardware is going to control the final image.

RAH
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
Messages
1,689
RAH:

Yeah, I've suspected for some time that all systems are not the same. I had my own system calibrated by a professional here in New York, but my plasma only retains one memory setting.

But all the sources are so different! One setting really doesn't cover everything I want to watch. I'm constantly changing the black and white levels, the sharpness level, even adjusting user settings for color. It's a little bit frustrating -- sometimes I need to adjust the settings during the same movie, because the bright scenes seem too bright, or the blacks are crushed too much in the darker scenes.

I also have an Apple LCD (not the HD one) but I never watch DVDs on it, because they don't look good, and I have little control over the user settings.

Sometimes I think I'm paying too much attention to altering the picture to my taste, and not enough attention to the actual movie.
 

Craig S

Premium
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2000
Messages
5,884
Location
League City, Texas
Real Name
Craig Seanor
As one of the members who posted dismay early on in this thread that this release may not be what we hoped for, let me just make clear that I still have the title on order and look forward to watching it. Hitchcock, Cary Grant, & Grace Kelly?? No way I'm going to be without this one!
I've probably been a little spoiled by titles like North By Northwest, and sometimes it's easy to forget that each film (and especially these older treasures) has its own unique problems involved in bringing it to the home viewer.
Thanks as always to Mr. Harris & Mr. Blythe for their comments.
 

george kaplan

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Messages
13,063
Well I'll have to wait until Tuesday to comment on the transfer, but I love this film, and being able to replace my p&s ld with an OAR dvd is worth it for me. Just to be able to see Hitch sitting on that bus is going to be great. Of course, I hope it looks as good as possible, but I don't think there's much doubt that it's going to look better than I've ever seen it before.
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,603
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
After viewing this dvd I will say that though, the movie looks better than I ever seen it before, the elements used really must have been in poor condition and it's too bad other elements were not used to clean up and restore the picture quality even moreso. Since, I don't know the particulars behind this dvd production, I will refrain from commenting any further except that some will be disappointed if they use North By Northwest as a benchmark in dvd quality. Also, there is more than just a slight improvement in the video quality of this dvd versus the VHS copy I previously owned.




Crawdaddy
 

Seth Paxton

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 5, 1998
Messages
7,585
I thought the DVD looked pretty good at some points, but saw some yucky looking video at other times.
However, I wonder if SOME of the bad spots were cases in which the originally used film for the REAR PROJECTION shots was just not so hot to begin with. I say this because many of those scenes looked worse than the others. Primarily it almost looked like the rear projection part was just dimmer, less contrast, and lower color level.
I have never seen a film print of the movie, so I have no solid reference of course. And beyond that I would obviously defer to RAH in a heartbeat on such opinions.
My bottom line is that I watched it 105" (Sony W400Q FProj) and found it very watchable, though far far down the list of great images. I enjoy the film and don't mind that I bought this DVD, though I would buy an improved version if it were possible.
It probabably didn't help that I had Spidey in just before it ;), but I also agree with Crawdaddy...don't expect NxNW here. Instead think Madacy "Number 17" and then you will get a pleasant surprise. :laugh:
 

Mark Anthony

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 25, 2001
Messages
457
http://www.obisreviews.com/mainnew.html
Has reviewed it too...
I'm stil buying the disc and realise the challenges involved in it's production, but hope that Paramount view's this as a title worthy of a proper film restoration from original 8 perf elements (or whatever is left) in the future. I still don't see why we waited so long for an average looking disc..
M
 

Gordon McMurphy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2002
Messages
3,530
Maybe the bar has been set too high in recent months for 40+ year old movies on DVD. We've seen some truly astonishing transfers this year from Warner, MGM etc and as To Catch A Thief is known by many to be a VistaVision-Eastmancolor movie shot by one of the greatest DPs of all time (Bob Burkes) that we were all expecting (well, me at least! ;) ) a pristine transfer and a nifty 5.1 remix along with the original mono. I myself do not know how much time and money it would have cost Paramount to create such a DVD transfer, but it sounds to me as if this DVD has an above-average transfer. I'll see for myself in a few days.
Oh, I see that the great Andre De Toth died last sunday. :frowning: He led an extraordinary life and made some superb movies! :emoji_thumbsup: I look forward to Warner's DVD edition of House Of Wax in 2003(?).
Gordy
 

Ken_McAlinden

Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2001
Messages
6,241
Location
Livonia, MI USA
Real Name
Kenneth McAlinden
I haven't yet read the Jeffrey Wells article (or most of the above posts), but I have spent most of the weekend with this disc. The occasional spics and specs from the film element don't bother me at all. The aspect of the video that does bother me is the lack of shadow detail, almost as if they did not have a good low-contrast element to work with for video transfer. The audio has some oddities (not as extreme as Universal's Marnie DVD, IMHO), and does seem to suffer from one form or another of noise reduction throughout.
It is still much better than any previous home video presentation of this title and as VistaVision Hitch on DVD goes, it is as good or better than Universal's release of "The Man Who Knew Too Much", but that's a bit like praising the fastest three-legged horse.
On a side note, I was kind of hoping that they would be able to get Herb Coleman to participate on the interviews for the featurettes as he has the combination of remarkable memory and strong views that makes for a good interview, but was sad to see that he passed away just over a year ago. :frowning:
Addendum: I just read Obi's review (linked above). He was obviously watching the same transfer I was
Regards,
 

Gordon McMurphy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2002
Messages
3,530
Re, RAH: My mistake: Eastmancolor on Thief, for sure.

Just out of curiosity, how are the original elements for Dial "M" For Muder? What was the aspect ratio(s) for the film? Was it intended for 1.66:1 etc?

Thanks.


Gordy
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,641
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top